UFC Fighter Cameron Smotherman Collapses After Making Weight
Friday mornings in Las Vegas are usually reserved for hangovers and regrets, but for UFC fighters, it is the culmination of a week-long battle against biology. The opponent isn’t in the cage yet; it’s gravity, dehydration, and a digital scale that doesn’t care about your dreams.
This Friday, the scale won in terrifying fashion.
Cameron Smotherman, a 28-year-old bantamweight prospect looking to make a name for himself at UFC 324, managed to hit the magic number of 135.5 pounds. He did the hard part. He beat the scale. But in a scene that silenced the room and sent a chill down the spine of even the most hardened fight veterans, his body simply decided it had enough.
The Terrifying Six Steps
It’s a ritual we see almost every week. A fighter steps up, looks gaunt, dehydrated, and miserable, hits the mark, and rehydrates. But Smotherman didn’t get to the rehydration part.
After the official shouted the weight, Smotherman stepped off the platform. He took about six steps, and then he went down. Face first. No bracing for impact, no instinctive hands out. Just a sickening thud against the floor.
Witnesses reported he appeared to convulse briefly, a sight that turns the stomach of anyone who loves this sport. The broadcast team, including Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier and Laura Sanko, were visibly shaken. These are people who watch violence for a living, folks who analyze bone breaks and knockouts with the detachment of a surgeon. But watching a young man’s system shut down from dehydration? That hits different.
Smotherman was eventually carried out on a stretcher, reportedly responsive and sipping electrolytes, but the damage was done. The fight with Ricky Turcios? Scrapped. The opportunity to fight on the first card of the massive new Paramount era? Gone.
Weight Cutting: The Sport’s Darkest Tradition
We love the knockouts. We love the submissions. We generally ignore the starvation. Occurrences like this serve as a grim reminder that the most dangerous part of MMA often happens 24 hours before the first bell rings.
Smotherman wasn’t the only one struggling with the scale on Friday, though his situation was by far the most severe. Former champ Deiveson Figueiredo decided to come in heavy, missing the mark by 2.5 pounds for his scrap with Umar Nurmagomedov. Alex Perez followed suit, also missing by 2.5 pounds. They get fined 25% of their purse, but they still get to fight.
Smotherman, by contrast, actually made the weight. He followed the rules. He did his job. And his reward was a trip to the hospital and a cancellation. It is a cruel irony that the guy who disciplined himself enough to hit the number is the one going home empty-handed, while the guys who missed get to lace up the gloves on Saturday night.
Paramount’s Debut Gets a Reality Check
This weekend was supposed to be a flawless victory lap for the UFC. It’s the kick-off of the monster $7.7 billion deal with Paramount. The suits are in town. The production value is up. Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett are ready to throw down in the main event.
But this incident is a bucket of ice water on the festivities. It forces everyone to confront the physical toll exacted on these athletes. We want them to be superheroes, but for that brief moment on the scale, Smotherman reminded us they are terrifyingly human.
The show, as they say, must go on. UFC 324 will proceed with 12 fights. Gaethje and Pimblett made weight without issue, ready to deliver the violence we all signed up for. But when the lights go down at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, there will be a lingering thought about the empty spot on the prelims where Smotherman should have been standing.
